Court Again Rejects Lawsuit Over YouTube’s Allegedly Discriminatory Content Moderation–Divino v. YouTube
LGBTQ+ content creators “claim that despite YouTube’s purported viewpoint neutrality, defendants have discriminated against them based on their sexual or gender orientation, identity, and/or viewpoints by censoring, demonetizing, or otherwise interfering with certain videos that plaintiffs uploaded to YouTube.” In…
“Liking” a Facebook Post Isn’t Defamatory–Gallagher v. MaternityWise
[WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A HAPPY THANKSGIVING] In 2018, Young posted a Facebook review accusing plaintiff Gallagher of being a sexual predator. Defendant Croudace allegedly “liked” Young’s post. The court says the “threshold issue is whether, as a matter…
How Copyright Law Fosters Anti-Competitive Behavior, Part Infinity–Bayam v. ID Tech
Bayam and ID Tech run rival online jewelry businesses. Both use Shopify as a service provider. ID Tech believed that Bayam copies too much of its copyrighted website content and pursued a whirlwind of enforcement activity, including filing two lawsuits…
Another Tough People Search Ruling–Spindler v. Seamless
Seamless offers a customer lead tool that displays the prospect’s personal information behind a subscription paywall with try-before-you-buy options. The plaintiff sued Seamless for violations of California’s publicity rights statute and related claims. The court denies Seamless’ motion to dismiss….
My Testimony to the Colombian Constitutional Court Regarding Online Account Terminations and Content Removals
Today, I testified remotely before the Colombian Constitutional Court in the case of Esperanza Gómez Silva c. Meta Platforms, Inc. y Facebook Colombia S.A.S. Expediente T-8.764.298. In a procedure I don’t understand, the court organized a public hearing to discuss…
Twitter Wins Another Account Termination Case–Yuksel v. Twitter
This is another account termination/suspension case, which turns out like all of the others. Yuksel was a longtime Twitter user with 142k followers. He claims that Twitter suspended his account at the behest of the Turkish government. The court dismisses…
Fourth Circuit Takes a Wrecking Ball to Zeran and Section 230–Henderson v. Public Data
Ugh, this Fourth Circuit opinion is terrible. I instantly knew it was written by a Trump appointee from the Federalist Society because it had the characteristic self-assured yet sloppy writing style. And what’s the deal with Justice Thomas fandom among…
Section 230 Protects TikTok for “Blackout Challenge” Death, Despite the Algorithms–Anderson v. TikTok
A tragic story: a 10-year old girl saw the Blackout Challenge on TikTok, tried it herself, and died. The mom sued TikTok for design defect and failure to warn claims under strict products liability and negligence theories. The mom claimed…
Defendants Get Important FOSTA Win in 9th Circuit–Doe v. Reddit
This is the first federal appellate ruling applying FOSTA. (The DC Circuit evaluated a facial constitutional challenge to FOSTA in Woodhull). It’s an important defense win. If this ruling stands and persuades other appellate courts, it has significant implications for…
Facebook’s Website Isn’t Governed by the ADA–Lloyd v. Facebook
This is a standard kitchen-sink pro se lawsuit against Facebook, but it touches a couple of key blog themes that makes it worth covering. Americans With Disabilities Act Lloyd claims that the Facebook website violates the ADA Title III. Citing…